Building gently

I was completely sure that I had taken a photo or two of the cockpit pieces before I glued them inside the airframe. Still, I just couldn't find them, so I guess I hadn't taken the photos after all. The cockpit, as I had said in the previous post, was pretty weird-looking. It consisted of two plates: an instrument panel + something that looked like it was supposed to be the silhouette of the pedals that got an aiming cylinder glued on it and then a massive bar that was supposed to be the joystick - and a rear plate where the pilot's seat was glued on. There was no floor on this plane.

The wing assembly was traditional: a large lower piece that got the left and right upper halves glued on. These bits didn't align too nicely but they settled after a bit of fighting. Taping the key parts shut was essential, as they tried to grin quite a lot everywhere.

There was supposed to be a brick-sized piece in the inner front of the cooler, with a sort of a grille-texture on it. But the brick was enormous and the opening on the wing required a huge amount of cleaning up and carving. I sliced off thin, thin slivers off the brick, dry-fitting it after almost ever one, but still I managed to ruin it and threw it away. Maybe this model would survive that. Interestingly the wingtips had two options, either the one she chose and what you can see in the pic below, which was larger and rounder (the one I also thought looked more Spitfire-like) or the noticeably shorter and tighter-arced one.

All in all the pieces were ridiculously thin and were bending in strange ways. I didn't dare to cut off the sprue-edges too close but left them to be filed off later. I just had the feeling that the tiniest of badly made cuts would've left the wings with insane gashes that would've been a pain to conceal.

The pointier and longer spinner was chosen out of the two alternatives. To my eyes the exhaust pipes somehow looked way too large, but maybe I'm just confusing them with the Messerschmitt 109's in my mind. Also, the mighty bar that supported the antenna cable didn't look like it fit in too well, but I trusted that the glue would hold it well enough.

Then I glued on the gun's tubes, the wheels in their wells and the landing gear plates to protect whatever they could cover before I joined the wings and the airframe. When I had done that I just sat there staring with wide eyes at the insane canyon between the airframe and the upper wing halves. I'd really need to putty this one up before I got to prime anything.